KM Improves Content Findability
Stan Garfield
Take your ideas and submitted suggestions, implement them, and then iterate and repeat the cycle. Never stop doing this. One early KM program win (and big improvement that is usually very popular) is to make content easier to find. To do so, leverage multiple methods and multiple channels.
Here are some specific suggestions.
Offer these user interfaces:
- Navigation
- Search
- Facets
- Related (since you downloaded X, try Y)
- A-Z Index
- Tags
- Bookmarks
- Sorted by most visited, most liked, most reused, and newest
Offer these channels:
- Intranet sites
- Blogs
- Mobile apps
- Email subscriptions
- Hardcopy subscriptions
- RSS feeds
- ESNs
- Podcasts
- Video
Take advantage of:
- Mobile optimization
- Photos
- Podcasts
- Video
- Hashtags
- External social media such as Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, SlideShare, etc.
Here are five suggested ways to make useful content easier to find.
- Make the search engine able to limit results by the date of the knowledge object. Defaults can be set to limit results to the last 90 days, one year, or whatever duration is desired. But it should be easy for users to change the date range to include older content in the search results.
- Add an “I reused this document” or “I found this useful” button, similar to a “Like” button but more specific, to all content. Encourage users to click on this button for content they were able to reuse.
- Allow content to be tagged with “recommended” or “good example” or “proven practice” by an authoritative source.
- Allow searching by date, tag attribute, most-liked by users, etc., and display at the top of the results list that content with the most “I reused this document” or “I found this useful” clicks, or the highest number of “recommended,” “good example” or “proven practice” tags by an authoritative source.
- Determine the topics of greatest importance to the organization, curate a list that can be searched and filtered, “pin” them to the top of results lists, and feed them as enterprise search “best bets,” with links to the content deemed to be the best for each key topic.
Beyond organic search results, you can intentionally provide content you know to be useful (option 5 listed above). To do so, determine the topics of greatest importance to the organization, curate a list of relevant content that can be searched and filtered, and feed the entries as enterprise search results. These can be in the form of curated answers— “best bets” (thumbnails and links only), authoritatively-badged content, or quick answers (more complete content plus links) for content deemed to be the best for each key topic. Results can also be dynamically generated using attributes, tags, sorts, filters, human interaction, etc.
Stan Garfield
The above is an excerpt from my book published by Lucidea Press, Proven Practices for Promoting a Knowledge Management Program, Chapter 9: “Improve Continuously”. Please also read my posts offering advice and insights drawn from many years as a KM practitioner, and you may want to learn how Lucidea’s Inmagic Presto enables users to find, not just search!
Similar Posts
Lucidea’s Lens: Knowledge Management Thought Leaders Part 67 – Shawn Callahan
KM Thought Leader Shawn Callahan helps analytically-minded executives tell stories that ultimately inspire action from employees and customers.
Lucidea’s Lens: Knowledge Management Thought Leaders Part 66 – Bob Buckman
Very few corporate CEOs directly champion knowledge management, and write about it. KM Thought Leader Bob Buckman is one of them.
Lucidea’s Lens: Knowledge Management Thought Leaders Part 65 – Johel Brown-Grant
KM Thought Leader Johel Brown-Grant specializes in using storytelling to create job stories, user journeys, and personas.
Lucidea’s Lens: Knowledge Management Thought Leaders Part 64 – Mark Britz
KM leader Mark Britz is a performance strategist, helping people be better connected, build on strengths, identify opportunities to improve workflow.
Hosting service
Enjoy all of the benefits of your Lucidea solution with secure, reliable, stress free hosting
Programs & incentives
No matter your size or budget, we’ve got you covered, today and tomorrow
Leave a Comment
Comments are reviewed and must adhere to our comments policy.
0 Comments